Remember Mark Twain; “The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read”. Similarly; If we have strong-Armed Forces and do not have the will to use them, it is as good as not having one. Chanakya says that three instruments of National Power are; Political will of the sovereign, the Power of the Treasury, and the Power of the Army. Look at the listing; first comes the Political Will of the Executive Head of State. If he does not have the political will; what use are the Armed Forces? The modern instruments of national power must be wielded to pursue national interest. They are political power, economic power, diplomatic power, power of Science and Technology, Information power, Cyber Power, Soft Power, and lastly when nothing succeeds one must use Military Power. The last power is again used in two ways; threat to use and if it does not achieve our political goal; unleash it to overwhelm the enemy on the battlefield and ensure that he succumbs to our will. Again, when Military Power is being used, all other instruments mentioned above continue to wield their respective powers to collectively achieve the political goal which in turn enables us to pursue our national interest.
Now, let us see what happened in Ladakh. China is in occupation of our territory of Aksai Chen since the 1950s. A parliamentary resolution was passed on 14 Nov 1962 (ironically it was the birthday of Nehru) during the Sino-Indian War that every inch of land occupied by China would be recovered. I have written about it several times for our current lawmakers to take note of; however, most of them are not even aware of its existence. Those who are aware prefer to feign ignorance. None of our policies even remotely are conceived to fulfill the parliamentary resolution. On the contrary, we have been losing our sovereign land to China and facilitating its creeping invasion. I have written about it earlier: The Sham Sharan Report of 2012 concludes further 640 Sq Km of our territory has been lost to China to its creeping invasion. Please note it is over and above the territories lost earlier. I will not even mention of the Shaksgam Valley of J&K, given by Pakistan to China in 1960. Again in 2020, we have lost over a thousand sq. km in Depsang itself. The ITBP has not been allowed to patrol the areas. Specifics have been mentioned in my earlier articles. If the ITBP is not allowed the patrol our areas; it should be considered as good as lost. Let us not mince words on it: We have lost the area as we have not patrolled the area for the last 33 months. I had written about it earlier and this is only a reminder. It should wring the hearts of every Indian with anguish and as a nation how can we accept it?
Now, let us question why are we silent on the further loss of territory except keep on saying that things are not normal with China. How does it matter to China as far as we are sustaining the PLA opposite us by funding them? Looks outrageous; is it not? The bilateral trade with China has gone much above the pre covid financial year with favourable balance in favour of China increased to 70 billion dollars in 2021. Do you think China is bothered about our foreign minister’s statement? Occasionally, it makes its own cryptic statement that the situation on the border was caused due to non-adherence of India to the bilateral agreements between the two countries. What is very amusing and laughable are the political comments that we have never acquired others’ land but we will be giving a befitting reply if anyone casts their evil eyes on us. I would request the script writers of political leaders to stop writing the celluloid statements and do a better job on his script because it looks preposterous that we are doing nothing about the new occupations. However, we also have watched keenly the construction of two bridges on Pangong Tso that would enable China to move its troops including its armour across the lake reducing its response time on its either side; the keen watch is still on while the country is awaiting the result at the end of the watch.
Let us have a clear take on the following: –
If things are not normal with China; why are we still importing all the toxic and cheap goods from China ensuring that we are paying his bills for fighting against us?
What action to liberate China’s 2020 illegal occupation of our territories?
What are our long-term plans to restore our territories to our proclaimed International Borders: Johnson’s Line in Ladakh and McMahon Line in Arunachal Pradesh?
When we are raising the issue of Independent Tibet in the UNO and working toward its independence?
When are raising the human rights issue in Xinjiang?
Why have we not yet raised the issue of illegal accession of Shaksgam Valley by Pakistan to China? What are we doing about it now?
Why are we adhering to the ‘One China Policy’ when China is not proclaiming the ‘One India Policy’?
Why did we allow China to annex the greater part of the Dolam Plateau an integral part of Bhutan? What actions to restore the plateau back to Bhutan?
Why did we vacate the Kailas Range which was on our side of the LAC as a quid pro quo of China vacating beyond Finger 1 which is also on our own side of the LAC? It was a bad bargain as the Kailas Range has strategic importance.
What have we achieved with Seventeen rounds of military commander’s talks except creating ‘No Man’s Land’ on our own side of the LAC? Have we not given him further opportunities to occupy it at the time and place of his choosing?
Why India is not taking steps to make Quad a Military alliance?
Why are we not pushing our patrols across the Y junction of Depsang Plateau where our access has been prevented by PLA? If they can come to Galwan and Yangtse to assert their claim; why are we not doing likewise?
Why are clear orders not been given to the Army on LAC? It is well laid out drills that if the enemy troops come with the intention to occupy our areas we shoot to destroy.
Why is the Army using police methods to fight external threats? Does this happen in any other part of this world? Have these tactics been emulated from an exoplanet?
Political leaders have a scripted phrases that India has never attacked any adversary in its history as we do not covet other’s territory. It is a well-recognized stratagem that we need to take the battle into enemy territories. We are besotted with the mindset that we have fought battles in the plains of Punjab however, a prudent strategy was taking the battle to Persia, Kabul, and Kandahar. Britishers who were indeed better strategists had done it; they fought Afghan Wars, and Anglo-Persian Wars and launched war campaigns into Tibet. We should be proud of the fact that Lord Rama invaded Sri Lanka, Simhavishnu, a Pallava King had captured Sri Lanka in the 6th century CE much before Rajendra Chola’s conquests in the 11th Century CE which included not only Sri Lanka but the coastline beyond Malacca Straits. Even Gen Zorawar Singh had annexed Ladakh and campaigned into Tibet in the mid-19th Century CE. Politicians; please do not shackle our future generations with antiquated and obsolescent mindsets. Foreign policymakers; please study India’s pristine civilization and culture. Please also know the Hindu Shahi rulers ruled Zabul (Province south west of Kabul) and Kandahar for nearly two centuries from the mid-9th to mid-11th Centuries CE.
All the ill-conceived Schemes implemented by the government have been exposed time and again by veterans. Please listen and consider them before the NSC with little knowledge of such matters destroys the integrity of the Armed Forces and transforms them into a greenhorn Russian army. Let it be known; no individual can be a professional in any field in four years. Incidentally, the Agniveers finish their service in four years. I really do not know whether the government requires a professional army or a ragtag force. Please read my articles ‘National Security Slapdash: At the mercy of Armchair Strategists’ and ‘Agnipath; a path toward Self Immolation.’ I do not want to repeat it again. The Supreme courts have also not spared the Indian Armed Forces whose mindset does not consider our national interest and give their judgment as if they are isolated from the tempestuous and cataclysmic geopolitics in which our country must survive. Please read my article ‘Surgical Strikes by Judiciary on the Armed Forces.’
Lastly, we only have one nation. It needs to prosper and bring prosperity to its people and nurture a better standard of living for our masses. We must be together in this hour of trial. If we cannot bite the bullet at the right time we will go down as a soft power unable to take a hard decision. Remember; PM Vajpayee’s surrender to the hijackers! Also, do not forget the mobilization after the parliamentary attack; we let diplomacy play its part and lost the leverage and a legitimate reason to wage a war. What did we achieve after that; nothing but thousand cuts from Pakistan. Look when Indian diplomacy weaved a tragic statecraft by surrendering 93000 PWs of Pakistan without a single strategic gain but also not getting back our own 54 PWs most would have died probably a few of them still languishing in Pakistani Jails. Recently, vacating Kailash Range in Feb 2021 also shows the bankruptcy in our foreign policy. Lastly, some relief after a litany of failures; the Indian Army’s surgical strike and IAF’s Balakot Airstrike exhibited the political will to a certain extent. It has brought a faint cheer on the dismal countenance of India’s statecraft.
Tailpiece: After shackling the Indian Armed Forces by policies imposed by charlatans; whenever any unsavoury event occurs the common refrain is that we have given free hand to our Armed Forces.
super Appu!👏👏👍🙏
An excellent exposition of our political leadership; diplomats; the National Security Council and all the Cat’s Whiskers inhabiting the PMO and a bunch of bureaucrats, who have little knowledge of “matters military”. Unless we change, get the right advisers and not ‘favourites’, incorporate the military in the decision-making loop, articulate a National Security Strategy and provide enhanced funds to the Indian Military, we will plod along losing both our land and our sovereignty.
Couldn’t have been expressed better.
A very thought-provoking article which needs to be analysed and acted upon. China’s Military doctrine “offensive defence” which implies that the PLA would not wait for the enemy to attack before it takes action when it realises that the enemy was intending to attack China based on its assessment. Similarly in the LAC scenario, India needs to have its own military doctrine to counter China’s creeping tactics to occupy unoccupied enemy territory, consolidate and then call it, its own territory. This has happened in Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea. In our case when our assessment suggests that China is likely to move forward and occupy enemy territory as it happened in Ladakh, our troops should pre-empt Chinese moves to occupy unoccupied land which is perceived as our territory…This requires digitisation of areas in our operational responsibility and a clear assessment by our intelligence agencies. Remember, once China occupies our territory, there are no options available otherthan to act militarily recover the territory.